America's Pacific Coast is no match for Cornwall

The first time my wife and I decided to rent a cottage in Cornwall in the summer holidays, the idea was to save money. Not that summer rentals are particularly cheap in Cornwall, but when you’ve got four children the cost of flying anywhere is prohibitive. There’s also the additional cost of renting a car to factor in — or rather a mini-van, because no car is big enough. If you live in London, as we do, one of the great advantages of Cornwall is that you can drive there in about four-and-a-half hours.

I won’t pretend it was love at first sight. Cornwall is England’s poorest county and some parts of it are pretty run-down. But after ten years of going there every summer — and, more recently, for the Easter holidays as well — we’ve become very fond of it.